Logically, Lance knows that he's annoying the everloving shit out of Keith. He knows that he's being over-the-top and ridiculous, because that's what he's good at. Not over-the-top and ridiculous like Mr.I'm-Gonna-Run-Directly-Into-This-Fight-Because-I-Think-I-Can-Take-On-The-Entire-World, but in a different way.

(At least Lance isawareof it.)

There's a special phenomenon that happens when you grow up with five other siblings: you learn to get attention, by any means possible, and old habits? They die hard!

(He may be a natural flirt, but Keith wouldn't take his flirting seriously anyway-- which is a problem he hasenoughof, thank you very much.)

But Lance knows this can't keep going on. Even if annoyed attention is better than no attention, that's not…

That's not the way he wants this to work out.

"Keith," he says, finding the other Paladin in the kitchen area with a cup in his hand. Keith arches an eyebrow at Lance, wiping whatever weird alien liquid he was just drinking off his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Yeah?"

Lance can't pinpoint the exact moment that he realized he had… a….Crush, on Keith. And he's spent alotof time thinking about it, trying to figure it out. He was just short of making some kind of Keith-level conspiracy theory think board just to plot this out. The closest he can ever seem to get is that their original "rivalry" was fueled by jealousy on his end, which turned into admiration, which turned into…

Whatever was making him want to launch himself at Keith and kiss him hard and aggressive. And also soft and slow. And every variation of that in-between, too!

Withtongue.

Oh, yeah. This is bad.

"Keith," he repeats, again, for good measure. "We have to talk. And no, not about child support."

Well,kind ofabout child support. Lance probably wouldn't be tackling this head-on right now if it weren't for the confirmation that they, apparently, in the future, like each other so much that they adopt a kid together. And go back to Earth together, where they play on the beach. Together! And sleep in the same bed together and yeah, if that's not confirmation that Keith likes him back thensomeonein the future is living a lie.

(That's sort of a depressing thought, so he moves on.)

Keith squints at him, sort of looking like he's bracing himself for something stupid to come out of his mouth. Ha, well, jokes on him because Lance was about to drop a bombeven better.

"I like you."

And there it was, out in the open. The ball has been served and is now in Keith's court. Out of Lance's hands. The match is tied--Wait, no, this isn't about points. Maybe he shouldn't have thought about the tennis analogy.

Keith looks around the kitchen like he expects Pidge to pop out of the cabinet or something with a camera. When he realizes it's not a prank, he focuses back on Lance and frowns.

"Oh," he says. "For how long?"

That's not really the reaction Lance was anticipating, which means that all of his practicing in front of his mirror was fornothing. There wasn't even any immediateswooning. Lance's mouth opens and closes like a fish.

"I--" Lance starts, "Don't know? Awhile?" Possibly even longer than he initially thought. He has a distinct memory of checking out Keith's ass multiple times when they first started training together. His subconscious knew before he did, apparently. "Wait, you're at least supposed to be surprised!"

Keith blinks. "There's a little girl from the future walking around this ship that calls us Daddy and Papa and I'm supposed to be surprised youlikeme?"

Okay, well, point taken. If Lance wanted a better reaction, he should have done this a week ago.

"I mean, Iguess." Lance crosses his arms in front of his jacket and shrugs his shoulders. "Wait, so do you like me back?"

"Yeah," Keith says, keeping his voice level and matter-of-fact despite the the increasing redness in his face.

"For how long?" Lance parrots Keith's own question back to him. Keith looks down at his palm and counts on his hands.

"Uh… Seven months," he says, with confidence. Lance's jaw drops.

"Seven--You liked me for seven monthsand never told me?"

"I didn't know if you liked me back!" Keith says, throwing his arms up. "Youdidn't even know if you liked me back! I wasn't going to say something!"

An awkward silence rolls over the kitchen after that, as Lance processes all this new information.

"Oh." he finally says, in response. "Yeah. I mean. Yeah, true."

"Yeah," Keith says back.

It's still awkward.

"I've gotta go train with Shiro." Keith finally says, and Lance isprettysure he's lying because Shiro was lounging on the couch earlier when Lance walked by. Keith moves toward the exit as Lance frowns.

"Wait, we were having a… A feelings conversation!"

"Bye," Keith says, and then he leaves.

Lance stands there, alone in the kitchen, and wonders what the hell even just transpired.

Keith was prepared for aliens. Keith believed bigfoot was real. In a world where nothing was impossible, where Keith flew around in agiant metal blue lion, nothing ever really took him by surprise.

However,

Nothing could have ever possibly prepared him for the sight of Shiro sitting across from his daughter, who arrived from the future andvery much should not exist yet, clapping their hands together to a rhythm that they were both singing out loud.

"Down by the banks of the Hanky-Panky,

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank-to-banky--"

"--Aw, crud." Shiro laughs as he messes up the pattern and throws the two of them off. Corrinne giggles.

"It's okay. Let's try again!"

Shiro lifts his hands up to retry, but notices Keith standing there out of the corner of his eye and turns to look at him. Corrinne follows his gaze.

"Keith," he says, by way of greeting. His eyes flicker from him to Corrinne, and Keith can practically see the gears turning in his head. "Hey, Corrinne, why don't we let Keith try?"

It had been a few days since Corrinne's untimely arrival, and she was slowly--but surely-- reaching out to the other Paladins, spending time with all of them. She wasn't exactly a trouble-maker, so Allura didn't feel the need to assign someone to her at all times, but she did have a habit of sneaking around. As long assomeoneknew where she was, it was fine.

The only person she hadn't spent any time with was Keith.

"I don't really know how to do play." Keith said, automatically, because it was true. Shiro arches an eyebrow.

"Corrinne is a good teacher. I bet you'll get the hang of it." he says, standing up and motioning toward the spot across from her. Keith sighs. There was no way he was going to get out of this one.

He sits down, cross legged across from Corrinne, and stares at her.

She stares back.

Shiro watches.

"... Hey, Corrinne," the older Paladin starts, breaking the silence. "Show Keith the first moves like you did me."

"Oh," she averts his gaze down, and then back up at Keith. "Okay. Um, hold your hand out like this…"

She goes through the movements, instructing him through each step before adding the lyrics onto it.

Keith is a surprisingly fast learner, for someone who didn't want to do this in the first place.

"Down by the banks of the hanky-panky,

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky,"

they chant, together. She adds on another verse as he starts to get the hang of it, and the rhythm speeds up.

"With a heeps, hops, soda pops,

Hey Mr. Lilly and he went kerplops,

With a cherry on top."

Keith is so focused on not messing up that he doesn't notice the small crowd gather around as Allura and Coran take notice, and Hunk and Pidge follow.

"Here comes Noah walking in the dark,

steps on a hammer and builds the ark,"

Lance is the last to stop in, noticing everyone in the room as he passes by. He steps in and opens his mouth to ask, but Hunk puts a hand on his shoulder and points to Keith and Corrinne. Lance gapes as they speed up evenmore.

"Here comes animals two by two,

Hippopotamus kangaroo,

Kaboom on you."

They're only getting faster the farther they go on, and Keith can't help the smile on his face when he glances up for a second and sees Corrinne so focused that her tongue is sticking out. He nearly messes them up by watching her.

"Deep in the jungle where nobody knows,

There's a big fat gorilla picking his nose,"

Everyone is totally mesmerized by the clapping. At the speed they're going at, it's almostimpossibleto look away.

"And he picks, picks, flicks, and it lands you--

Kaboom!"

At the last word, Corrinne lungs forward and presses her index finger to Keith's forehead. He stares at her, confusion all over her face as she giggles.

"I wiped the gorilla's booger on you!" she clarifies, "So I won and you lost!"

Lance busts out laughing.

"Wait, you didn't tell me about that!" Keith says, eyebrows furrowing as Lance reaches over and gives her a fist bump. She shrugs.

"Umm, well, you're just s'posed toknow."

"I want a rematch." Keith says, crossing his arms. She giggles, but before she can agree Allura cuts in.

"Wait! I'd like to learn this game too." she says, smiling sweetly. "Perhaps we should all take turns?"

Corrinne taps her chin as Keith pouts silently to himself. "Um, actually we could all play it together! If we all sit in a circle."

Allura's eyes practically sparkle. "Oh, excellent! Everyone, get in a circle. This will be great for a bonding exercise."

Everyone moves to create a circle on the floor, with Corrinne squeezing herself firmly in between Keith and Lance. She holds out her palms face-up on either side, and everyone else follows. She rests her hands on Keith and Lance's palms.

"Um, I can start! All you had to do is hit the next person's palm as it speeds up. The first person who messes up the timing is out. Ready?"

Everyone nods. She claps Lance's palm and starts,

"Down by the shores of the hanky-panky,

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank-to-banky…"

It's a few days later when Lance is woken up by a knocking on his door, followed by the sound of choked crying.

He fumbles to the door in a confused panic, because what thehell, when it slides open and he sees Corrinne. Tears down her face, she rubs at her eyes and gives another pathetic sniffle.

"Cora? What's wrong?" he crouches down, moving a hand to wipe a stray tear from her face. "Cora--"

She practically throws herself at him, wrapping her small arms around his neck and burying her face in his shirt. She starts crying again, probably getting snot all over his pajama shirt, but he can't find it in himself to care.

"Hey, shh, it'll be okay." he says, rubbing her back. "It'll be okay. Did you have a bad dream?"

She sniffles, shaking in Lance's arms. He thinks he feels his heart break, a little.

"...nt Daddy," she mumbles, words muffled by Lance's shirt. He frowns.

"What?"

"Want Daddy," Cora repeats. She pulls her head out of his shirt, but her fingers cling tighter. He nods, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up.

"Daddy-- Oh, yeah, okay. We can go see Keith."

She's light. It's been so long since he last had to carry a child anywhere that he had forgotten what it was like, to hold someone so much smaller than you. She buries her face into his shoulder as he walks down the hall and knocks on Keith's door, holding her up with one arm.

He doesn't take long to answer. Lance isn't surprised; he knows Keith is a light sleeper. Still, he looks slightly groggy as he takes in the scene before him, Corrinne's sniffling face hidden from his sight.

"What…" he rubs at his eye. "Lance? What's going on…"

"She asked for you," he says, not feeling the need to state that she was crying so hard she was gasping for breath just a few minutes ago. He adjusts her slightly, moving her up, and she clings onto him harder in response.

"Cora," Lance says, softly. "Keith is here. Do you want me to put you down?"

She shakes her head violently. Keith sighs and runs a hand through his bedhead.

"Just come in," he says, stepping aside. He closes the door behind Lance and sits down on his bed. Lance follows, hoping that maybe feeling the bed will cause Corrinne to unattach herself from his shirt.

"What happened?" Keith asks, voice low, and Lance shrugs the best he can with a child koala-clinging to him.

"I don't know. Maybe a bad dream. My siblings always came to me with those," he says. Carefully, he attempts to get her to let go of him again. She finally loosens her grip, turning to bury her face into Keith's shirt this time. He looks down at her, in shock, and then looks up at Lance with pleading eyes. If this had been any other situation, it would have been kind of funny.

"D-Don't go."

Keith blinks down at her as she sniffles, looking up to meet his gaze. He frowns, confused.

"Go… Where?"

"Away." she says, and then the tears start rolling down again. Keith panics.

"I'm not going anywhere," he says, carding a hand through her dark hair while sending Lance desperate looks. Lance only shrugs in confusion. "I'm… Right here, Cora."

Her shoulders shake. "Papa too?"

"Right here." Lance replies. She twists around in Keith's lap, like she's making sure that he wasn't lying somehow. She lets out a sniffle, and then a nod when their eyes meet.

"S-Stay here."

He can't tell if it's a request, or a demand, or something in-between--but he wasn't about to find out either. "Okay." he replies. "I'm right here."

She leans away from Keith to grab onto Lance for the second time, resting her head against his chest instead of burying her face. Besides a few hiccups, her breath evens out and he mimics what Keith had done earlier, combing his hands gently through her hair.

"... I think she fell asleep," Lance says, after a few minutes of silence. He feels Keith let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay. Think you can carry her back?"

Lance goes to stand up, but the movement makes her whine in her sleep as her fingers cling to him tighter. He shakes his head.

"Not a good idea. I don't wanna wake her up again. What if she starts crying?"

Keith sighs. "You can leave her in here, then? I don't mind sleeping with her for tonight."

"She's got a grip on me tighter than those black skinny jeans you wear." Lance replies, shaking his head again. Keith scowls at the analogy.

"Hey." he snaps, and then pinches the bridge of his nose. "So… What do we do."

Lance chews his bottom lip. Corrinne breathes evenly in his arms, completely unaware of the total stress she was causing the two of them. "Uh. I mean, I could just lay down. She said not to leave, right? So if she wakes up and one of us isn't there, she might freak out."

Keith considers this. "Oh,"

Lance is really glad it's dark in Keith's room, because he's sure his face is turning a very interesting color of red. "Yeah. I mean, just for one night, for Cora. We should be able to fit if we sleep on our sides."

"Yeah." Keith says, and then clears his throat. "I mean, yeah. That's fine."

He wonders if Keith's face is just as red as hisfeels. Scooting very, very carefully, he places his back against the wall and lays Corrinne down next to him, curled up into his shirt. She makes a contented noise, and Keith lays down beside her.

In the dark, like this, Lance can just barely make out Keith's eyes watching him. He gives him a grin, hoping it's not as nervous as it seems.

"'Night, Keith."

"Yeah, 'night."